1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the distribution of information over a computer network. More specifically, the present invention relates to computer programs for selectively limiting the bulk distribution of messages over a computer network, and particularly over the Internet.
2. The Relevant Technology
The Internet is fast proving itself to be one of the most significant technological developments of the current era. Originally developed in the United States for military communications, the Internet has now expanded to link computer users world-wide. The Internet is an interconnected system of computer networks of varying types with terminals, usually computer stations, communicating with each other through a common communication protocol, e.g. TCP/IP. Through this interconnected system of computer networks, the Internet serves as the underlying hardware that facilitates a global system of communication known as the world wide web,
Piggy-backed onto the public telephone network, the Internet is available to anyone with a telephone line and a computer, though even these minimal requirements may become unnecessary in the near future. Both businesses and private users are taking advantage of the Internet in rapidly increasing numbers for communications of diverse nature.
One reason for the rapid integration of the Internet into society is that the Internet provides efficiencies in communication that are unmatched by other types of communications mediums. Messaging over the Internet is very quick, even to remote locations throughout the world. Responses are also typically very quick. Internet communication is minimally regulated and relatively inexpensive, typically requiring only the cost of a computer terminal and a periodic Internet service provider fee. Additionally, Internet communications are pervasive, providing easy access from every user on the Internet to millions of other users, almost regardless of physical location,
Because of these efficiencies, one form of communication that has quickly migrated to the Internet is advertising. Advertisers are able to generate and send bulk mailings at a fraction of the cost of mail, telephone, radio, and other commonly accepted types of advertising. Programs exist that quickly merge commercial advertisement messages with reference lists of Internet user addresses and automatically send out thousands of advertisements in a single day at almost no cost to the sender.
Unfortunately, the indiscriminate nature of broadcast advertising over the Internet has led to a host of problems. In order to deliver a message in volume and thereby take advantage of the efficiencies of the Internet, senders frequently use commercially generated reference lists of Internet user addresses. These reference lists are very labor intensive and costly to compile in any manner other than randomly. Thus, many Internet broadcasters use random lists of user addresses to send their advertising, transmitting messages to a large number of disinterested Internet users for every interested Internet user.
Internet users typically resent this random xe2x80x9cjunk mailxe2x80x9d cluttering up their cyberspace mailboxes. Consequently, random advertising over the Internet is commonly referred to, rather unaffectionately, as xe2x80x9cspamming.xe2x80x9d Angry recipients of unsolicited E-mail advertising have gone so far as to react in simultaneous, damaging, electronic backlashes aimed at particularly notorious junk mail-generating entities.
Regulations have been proposed to limit spamming, but as with every other form of regulation, regulations would limit the freedom of communications that exist on the Internet and would also likely increase the cost of using the Internet to everyone. As with other existing problems on the Internet, Internet users would prefer to regulate themselves.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method or apparatus that could be used by Internet users to maintain or increase the efficiency of advertising that exists on the Internet, while decreasing or eliminating the occurrence thereon of unsolicited mail.
The apparatus of the present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available technology. Thus, it is an overall objective of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus that overcomes some or all the problems discussed above.
Consistent with the foregoing object, and in accordance with the invention as embodied and broadly described herein, a message distribution limiter program for selectively sending messages to remote terminals of a computer network is provided under the present invention. The message distribution limiter program in one embodiment operates in conjunction with a network, a processor upon which the message distribution limiter program executes, a network interface for communications between the message distribution limiter program and a network, and a memory device for storing the distribution limiter program.
The memory device may, at different times, comprise nonvolatile memory such as a hard drive, a floppy, or cd rom. The memory device may also comprise rom associated with a computer processor. Data structures are stored within the memory device, and comprise a network interface module for receiving an address of target data stored at a remote site on the computer network and for making the target data locally available to one or more of the data structures.
Also included is a search engine for examining the target data made available by the network interface module to determine if user addresses are present in the target data. A further included data structure comprises a user address extraction module for extracting user addresses from the target data. Another provided data structure includes a database compilation module for compiling a database of user addresses from the user addresses extracted by the user address extraction module.
Other optional data structures include a filter for screening the target data according to a selected criterion, such that user addresses are extracted from the target data only when the target data meets the selected criterion. Also optionally included is a site navigator module for locating within the target data referenced site addresses of remote sites on the computer network. The site navigator module may further comprise a filter for screening the site addresses referenced within the target data according to a selected criterion.
Other possible data structures of the message distribution limiter program include a message addressing module for associating the user addresses with messages that are to be transmitted to remote sites on the computer network. Additionally, a message display module for allowing a human user to view the messages after the user addresses have been attached to the messages, to view context data regarding the messages, and to select whether to transmit the messages may also be included. Another possible data structure includes a message transmission module for placing the messages on the network to be transmitted to the remote sites.
Likewise, the message distribution limiter program may include a user interface for providing a human user with a choice of utilizing at least two different types of message screening. The user interface may also provide the human user with the choice of utilizing three or four different types of message screening.
A computer-implemented method for selectively sending messages to remote terminals of a computer network is also provided as part of the present invention. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a site address of target data stored at a remote site on the computer network. Additionally, the method may include locating the target data stored at the remote site on the computer network. Also possibly part of the method is examining the target data to determine if user addresses are present in the target data.
The method may also include extracting user addresses from the target data, and compiling a database containing the extracted user addresses. Also, the method may include downloading the target data to a local memory prior to the step of examining the target data. The method may likewise include locating, within the target data, one or more embedded site addresses of remote sites on the computer network for locating target data referenced within the remote sites.
Screening the embedded site addresses according to a selected criterion may also be part of the method. Similarly, screening the target data according to a user-selectable criterion such that user addresses are extracted only from target data meeting the selected criterion may be conducted under the method.
Also included as part of the present invention are data structures for selectively sending messages to remote terminals of a computer network. These data structures may comprise a mail screening module adapted to be incorporated into a computer network site having therein a mail box of a user, the mail screening module being further adapted to contain a user-selectable code indicating whether a selected type of message is desired to be received by the mailbox. Also possibly included is a filter for operating within a search engine for ascertaining from the user-selectable code, when the user-selectable code is embedded within a computer network site, whether a selected type of message is desired to be received by a selected mailbox of the computer network site.
Thus, the present invention provides the advantages of specifically targeting the audience of message campaigns over networks. The high degree of screening limits the distribution of the messages to only those most likely to have interest in the messages. This can go far to alleviate the problem of anger by E-mail recipients barraged by unwanted and irrelevant E-mail.
The screening can occur with a pre-screen search on the Internet, with two filtering operations of one or more filters each, with a user screening according address and context information, and through user interest codes inserted into remote sites and monitored as one of the filtering steps.
The transmission of custom mail messages is quick, convenient, and efficient, and the user is presented with information to evaluate the likelihood of interest in each message quickly without having to access the individual web sites manually.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.